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Universal Monsters
Universal Monsters is a film franchise that comprise distinctive horror, suspense and science fiction films made by Universal Studios from 1923 to 1960. History In 1923 Universal produced the drama The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which starred Lon Chaney as Quasimodo. The production sets were built to evoke 15th-century Paris, including a re-creation of the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral. Chaney starred as The Phantom in 1925's horror film, The Phantom of the Opera, based on the mystery novel by Gaston Leroux. The interior of the Opéra Garnier was recreated to scale which was used again in the 1943 remake with Claude Rains. In 1931 Bela Lugosi starred in Universal's Dracula and Boris Karloff in Frankenstein. Actors Dwight Frye and Edward Van Sloan made several film appearances in this decade. Make-up artist Jack Pierce created several monsters' make-up starting in the 1930s. The Mummy, starring Karloff, was produced in 1932. This was followed by a trilogy of films based on the tales of Edgar Allan Poe: Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) starring Lugosi, The Black Cat (1934), and The Raven (1935), the latter two of which teamed Lugosi with Karloff. Universal began releasing sequels including Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Dracula's Daughter (1936) and sequels for The Invisible Man (1933). The end of Universal’s first run of horror films came in 1936. The monster movies were dropped from the production schedule altogether and would not re-emerge for another three years. In the meantime, a theatre owner revived Dracula and Frankenstein as a double feature, prompting the studio to re-release the original movies. Son of Frankenstein (1939) starring Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi was released. During the 1940s, Universal released The Wolf Man (1941), with Lon Chaney, Jr. Chaney became the studio's leading monster movie actor in the 1940s, just as his father had been two decades earlier, supplanting the 1930s' Karloff and Lugosi by a wide margin in terms of the number of leading roles that he played. In 1943, the studio created a remake of Phantom of the Opera, this time starring Nelson Eddy and Susanna Foster with Claude Rains as the Phantom.The Frankenstein and Wolf Man series continued with The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), in which Chaney, Jr. played Frankenstein's monster, and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) with Lugosi as the Frankenstein monster and Chaney, Jr. as the Wolf Man. Son of Dracula (1943) featured Chaney, Jr. in Lugosi's original role as the Count. The Mummy series was also continued with The Mummy's Hand (1940), The Mummy's Tomb (1942), The Mummy's Ghost and The Mummy's Curse (both 1944). House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945), featured many of the monsters from the studio's previous films. As the decade drew to a close, the comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), with Lugosi in his second movie as Dracula, starring alongside Chaney, Jr. as Larry Talbot (the Wolf Man), and Glenn Strange as Frankenstein's monster. Abbott and Costello appeared in films featuring characters such as the Mummy and the Invisible Man. Creature from the Black Lagoon, directed by Jack Arnold, was released in 1954. Dracula and Frankenstein were re-released as double features in theatres, and were later broadcast in syndication on American television in 1957 as part of the Shock Theater package of Universal Monster Movies. Magazines such as Famous Monsters of Filmland covered the monster films. Universal spent the last half of the decade issuing a number of one-shot monster films. Films * The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) * The Phantom of the Opera (1925) * The Cat and the Canary (1927) * The Man Who Laughs (1928) * The Last Warning (1929) * The Last Performance (1929) * The Cat Creeps (1930) * La Voluntad del Muerto (1930) * Dracula (1931) * ''Dracula'' (Spanish) (1931) * Frankenstein (1931) * Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) * The Old Dark House (1932) * The Mummy (1932) * Secret of the Blue Room (1933) * The Invisible Man (1933) * The Black Cat (1934) * The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935) * Bride of Frankenstein (1935) * Werewolf of London (1935) * The Raven (1935) * The Invisible Ray (1936) * Dracula's Daughter (1936) * Night Key (1937) * Son of Frankenstein (1939) * Tower of London (1939) * The Invisible Woman (1940) * The Mummy's Hand (1940) * The Wolf Man (1941) * The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) * Invisible Agent (1942) * The Mummy's Tomb (1942) * Night Monster (1942) * Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) * Captive Wild Woman (1943) * Phantom of the Opera (1943) * Son of Dracula (1943) * The Mad Ghoul (1943) * Calling Dr. Death (1943) * Weird Woman (1944) * The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944) * Jungle Woman (1944) * The Mummy's Ghost (1944) * The Climax (1944) * Dead Man's Eyes (1944) * House of Frankenstein * The Mummy's Curse (1944) * The Frozen Ghost (1945) * The Jungle Captive (1945) * Strange Confession (1945) * House of Dracula (1945) * Pillow of Death (1945) * House of Horrors (1946) * She-Wolf of London (1946) * The Brute Man (1946) * Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) * Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949) * Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951) * The Strange Door (1951) * The Black Castle (1952) * Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953) * It Came from Outer Space (1953) * Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953) * Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) * Revenge of the Creature (1955) * Cult of the Cobra (1955) * This Island Earth (1955) * Tarantula (1955) * Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955) * The Creature Walks Among Us (1956) * Curucu, Beast of the Amazon (1956) * The Mole People (1956) * The Deadly Mantis (1957) * The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) * The Land Unknown (1957) * The Monolith Monsters (1957) * Monster on the Campus (1958) * The Thing That Couldn't Die (1958) * Wikipedia:Curse of the Undead (1959) * Dracula (1979) * The Mummy (1999) * Wikipedia:The Mummy Returns (2001) * The Scorpion King (2002) * Van Helsing (2004) * The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) * Wikipedia:The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior (2008) * The Wolfman (2010) * The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption (2012) * The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power (2015) See also * Universal Monsters Cinematic Universe Category:Universal Monsters